I lost one a short time ago due to me forgetting about it..... I also lost one to a hacked account i lost about a month ago.

Although...on a positive note - I have sold 3 houses on other shards, GL + Europa and LA in the past two weeks, I have had more ppl icq me and ask for items and houses that ever before. I think we have a pick up in ppl joining UO but i am afraid that Oceania is not getting the majority of new ppl.

I have said this on many different shards over the past year. The game is 11 years old. Not bad for a game. It was the first of its kind also. It holds alot of memories for alot of us. The facts still stand tho....With everything going on. With KR. With new expansions being pushed farther and farther away....Events going by by for one reason or another..NOW the Calf people moving back East in the states. So in other words closing down a place to save money.

So what do players do. Complain on whos the bigger pvper in the game.

Ok folks. With all the other online games out there. That have better graphics. better PvP. Better Events etc etc. The game is dieing a faster and faster death. The only people who really still play are us veterans. Seriously. When was the last time someone seen a newbie who was actually a newbie?

I mean its time to wake up. Stop fighting among ourselfs. The days for that are SO long over. We got to get new blood into this game...but then again the time for that might have long past too..shrugs...I do believe at the start UO let us do the role playing and the community towns and so forth. Maybe its time to stop looking at devs and start spreading the word of coming back to UO. Heck Im sure if we talk to 20 people one might want to get back to old school gaming and come back....shrugs..

steps off soap box.

BTW now..can you tell me where a castle has dropped? I have always wanted a space for one. Thank you

A lot of the IDOC's come from being able to increase storage now and extra char on one account along with rares market being eroded away with dupes just makes sense not to have too many accounts now and it they made checks bigger than 1mill it would cut even more off the housing
What I have seen over the last few years is no diff to now just the owners of UO now sell items to us instead of placing them in game so it is possible that it will become a pay as you use game in the future along with monthly subscriptions
I myself closed 3 accounts in Dec and will prob close another 3 at the end of Feb unless the Devs get off their ass and do something in game for Christ sake
Magincia is fast becoming a joke after a great start to a scenario now waste lands if you remember the place was packed with players for a few weeks that was great even the pvp whingers act went there lol

Uo's Pvp is by FAR the most dynamic of any game that is out at the moment. It's not just your standard 1 to = key game, it requires far more skill, reaction and observation. Don't say PvP is gear based either because that stopped LONG, LONG ago and games like WoW are far more gear based with their tier 5's or whatever they are up to now.

The ONLY thing that other games have on UO is a much, much bigger population (I prefer UO's current graphics). It was YOU trammy's who ruined UO by crying and being carebears wanting trammel to be introduced. Why do you think there are pre-ren freeshards who ALWAYS have 800-1200 people on them, at a time? And I'm not just talking about one either, [censored] I think if you added the entire population of people logged into freeshards v total logged into UO... freeshards would almost triple them.

As UOPODCASTING wonderfully said in another thread:

<blockquote><hr>

Because UO has moved into care taker mode. Your subscriptions are helping the development of Warhammer Online or whatver Mythic are about to release.

Yes well it is what happens when you have a shard with a small population to start with. Especially when one side of the population, be it a small but vocal side, has little to no respect for the other. And people who should know better do nothing but patronize that side so that it just keeps them going all the time. Personally, I can't be bothered getting into it all, but even though I try to remain outside of it being that I am fairly visible on shard with events and stuff it seems some people just can't help but feel it is ok to have a go at you as they wish.

You only have to read these boards to see examples of it pretty much every day. This is why I won't even bother posting to threads anymore unless I have generated the thread for event advertising or KR changes. (other than this one of course as it highlights the reason I don't post) The only board I regularly post on these days is the KR forum, mainly as all the personal crap is left off it and KR is new and has potential so I try to support it as it is the only way I see of UO actually 'growing'. Hence the effort I have put in to learning it and providing new player help for the client etc.

What happens on these boards is a pretty close reflection of what happens 'in game' and when people are constantly griefed, abused, betrayed, lied to, scammed, ridiculed and generally forced to put up with some that have nothing better to do than to be obnoxious to their fellow shard dwellers then people eventually think 'why bother' and leave.

Coupled with this is the fact that the game is 'old' and even the 'best' gamers come to a point where real life takes precedent. All the talk that UO is dying and people leave because of crap content etc is probably totally incorrect as I know UO has more content to satisfy the broadest sections of the general community than any other game on the market. How many other games can claim they have had people playing for 10 years and who won't leave til the light does go out? Where you can fight pvm or pvp, fish, plant seeds, craft, run events, own and deco houses, do quests, stand around chatting, run vendors, solo or group fight, change your skills as you change your underpants etc. It is probably due more to the fact that if you started shortly after UO began at the age of 20-25 you are now going to be 30-35 and have real life commitments that take precedent such as families, children and work. In the 5 yrs I have been playing, I have never seen UO promoted outside in the real world, so getting in new blood to replace the old just doesn't happen unless it is by word of mouth.

So we have both things happening, a company that has failed to promote it's own product, and a bunch of people on a small shard that get pleasure in being ugly to each other instead of sticking together and trying to improve moral on the shard and encouraging new people to come here.

I have encouraged 5 new accounts to be opened on this shard in the past few months, if everyone did the same then our population would build. Unfortunately, it seems that some are just content to get on their high moral horses and claim to have the community at heart while fostering argument and dissention by patronizing their fellow players either on these boards or in game. Others start arguments for arguments sake by ridiculing others. Some just want to be downright ugly to others and knock whatever anyone tries to do because for whatever reason they take pleasure out of this.

Anyone looking for a new game who stumbles across this board by accident would probably be seen running in the other direction within a minute of reading it. And the same applies in game. If the first few people you meet are helpful and friendly you will stay, if you meet the 'other' type first and get griefed and or scammed or just spoken to rudely, you will go, especially if you are using a free trial account to check it out.

So given that the game suffers natural attrition due to age, that UO isn't promoted, and that a new or returning player has a 50/50 chance of either staying or going depending on their first experience then you get the picture.

I myself, have seriously been considering leaving over the past few months, not because I don't love UO, I do, but because all I see are a lot of people who just feel it is ok to act ugly to each other, to betray and lie to each other, to scam each other, to knock anything that people try to do to engender any type of community feel, and an increasingly large element that are just downright nasty. This is supposed to be something we all play for 'enjoyment' we don't come here to deal with grief.

As for 'real' new players, I guilded one last week who I came across as he sent me a tell msg in KR even tho he was in 2d. He had been playing WOW for the last 2-3 yrs and had enough of it so actually found a copy of 8th age in a shop, bought it and decided to give it a go. After trying to get a few people to help him figure out just basic stuff, and getting no response or just rudeness, he msg me from 2d chat, (probably as I was the only other in there being in KR at the time) and asked if i could help him, which I did. The rest of my guild atm consists of pure new players, ie started within the last 6 mths and/or returning players who have not played for 2-3 yrs or more. So they are out there. How we treat those new or returning players is what decides if they stay or not.

People come and people go and it is always sad to see people go.....but really everyone stop and think how many times have we seen "Oceania is dying" or "goodbye oceania" or even "Oceania wont last the year" comments? And we are not the only shard that gets these comments or type of posts.

I know that in the 5 or 6 years I have been playing I have seen these comments any time there is a change to the game or a new expansion. I admit the shard is quite. But I know, I for one see newbies all the time. Maybe poc are hogging them all I don't know but we have several in our guild and just last night I stood in haven and helped out a woman playing a trial account and she was coming to us from WOW a supposedly better game.

Have the forums been full of ....basically stupidity over the Christmas break...yep for sure, am I guilty too yes I am but I am admitting that and moving on with the aim to make the shard better. And rather then giving up rolling over and letting the shard die I know I for one will be fighting for it and trying to build it back to what it was.

and sorry but threads like this do not help that, they just make people get more and more sucked into the mentality that the shard is dying and not worth it.

So rather then focus on this get behind community events, stop and talk to your fellow oceanians, lend a hand when you can and just make it a more enjoyable experience for everyone.

I suspect it happens everywhere, but Australians have always tended to suffer from 'tall poppy syndrome' so perhaps it is more noticeable here, especially as the shard has such a small population. Certainly the natural attrition and the reasons why UO seems 'old' to a lot of players and the fact that EA has the suckiest promotion ever put out by a company for a product would impact on people leaving.

The thing I find funny is that people think it is UO and content/devs/updates etc etc, when in fact I suspect that the 'boredom' is more due to how long they have been playing rather than anything else. I mean imagine playing monopoly for 10 yrs, the first few games are fine but after 10,000 it would seem a bit old, doesn't mean monopoly isn't a great game nor a classic game, just anything you do over and over will get old. Fact is this game has tons and tons of content, most people, even those who class themselves as 'vets' have really only probably experienced 70% of what there is to do. A lot get stuck in one style of play and stay there, ie pure pvp or pure pvm, and forget the other stuff there is available.

You make your own challenges in this type of 'game' tho a more appropriate name would be 'world'. A game tends to have a beginning and an end and at some point a 'winner' which is not the case with this. This never ends so unless you are prepared to create challenges for yourself of course you will then only be waiting for the devs to introduce something new and unless it happens every week or so you will bag them for being slack. Point is in the last 2 yrs since ml, I think the added content re ophidians, blackrock, candle of love, inu, seekers of truth, magincia, halloweens etc etc has been quite a bit of new 'content'. Certainly in comparison to my first two-three years where it seemed there was nothing new. People just have limited patience as instead of thinking of things for themselves to challenge them they expect to be spoonfed with ideas on how to keep active, busy and to have focus.

It is why I don't just do 'one' thing, I mine, lumberjack, fish, run vendors, run events, get into designing buildings and deco, help newbies, do peerless etc etc. I don't have enough hours in the day to get through half of what I 'want' to get done, and I like anyone else, has days when I am bored and can't be bothered really doing much at all. Still, that is my boredom and how long I have played and the amount of hours I play, not the fault of UO.

You only need to look at the animosity towards the KR client. EA stuffed it completely releasing it as they did, when they did, however, players are just as bad in that they will log in once or twice, see a 'difference' and instantly log out then start bagging it. A lot will just say 'I love 2d' end of story and will never 'move' over. Me, well I kinda figured it is something dif, and even if it does suck in the long run, it won't be because I didn't take the time to learn it properly, it will be because it actually 'does' suck.

Hence why I started the KR user guide to start with, just as a 'project' to keep me focussed and make me 'learn' which had some kind of purpose. If I hadn't done that and made a point of trying to figure stuff out, how to do it, what it was capable of etc, then after my 50th crash I probably would of given it away too, however, I am pretty persistent so until such time as they stop developing it, I will persist in playing it. As it is now, I think it is great, tho of course it still has bugs and stuff that is still way better to do in 2d. But a lot of stuff now is far superior in KR. It doesn't have to be 'one or the other' as most people seem to get stuck on, I play both clients, enjoy things in both, and use whichever client is 'better' for whatever I am doing at the time. Crafting, fishing, mining, lumberjacking, rune marking, fighting, I wouldn't touch 2d now, vendors, deco, I don't do in KR.

And from experience, doing new player quests over and over, while putting the KR new player guide together, KR has bought in a lot of new players and encouraged a lot of 'return' players back to UO. The biggest problem now is that half the 'vets' out there have not bothered to even try it since it's initial release, or who haven't been able to do 'one' thing they can in 2d so instantly say KR sucks, make it so difficult for any new players who do come in via the KR doors as they have very little 'vet support'. There is no one to to assist them in how to get around so they either give up in frustration as no one can help them, or get told by 'vets' KR sucks play 2d, which is a very short sighted response and will end up killing the game as I seriously doubt if KR doesn't get up and going that 2d as it stands, will have much of a future left.

I like your input here hits the nail on the head I for one do not find enough time to play and have to restrict what i do so as not to become frustrated with the client
Example here is connection and without people around it is difficult to do some things on your own how I would like to have a great con yes then pvp would become more of an option even just for fun but no way do I and a lot of others intend to feed the greedy coffers of what I call the "Super Chaps" in this area for it is only recently that they let their guard down and tried to show how they do it but this also I wonder how long for.
UO is horses for courses and for me been there done that nothing to prove and nothing I cant buy if I want it
Yes UO will not last much longer in its current form but who knows what is around the corner
So in the mean time I soldier on

You know. When they do decided to close the shards down. Saying nothing lasts forever...on that final week before they close down..I would like UO to play the song by R.E.M. Its the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. It would just be the perfect time for it...

You know. When they do decided to close the shards down. Saying nothing lasts forever...on that final week before they close down..I would like UO to play the song by R.E.M. Its the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. It would just be the perfect time for it...

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

It amazes me how much effort gets put into this forum...... can you imagine if everyone here in stratics put this much effort into the game instead of wasting it here.............
*goes back to her beloved game instead of wasting her time in here)

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